Sunset Play

Been literally rebuilding the sunset. 

Carrara has a decent built in sky generator, but it is somewhat restrictive in editing individual elements. So I decided to build my own sunset completely from scratch. 

Work in progress

I started building a sun. It is a sphere primitive with a liberal application of glow. However I wanted it to pack a bit more punch than this.

Work in progress

Adding a bit of lens flare I've got it down pretty good.

However the sky was too straight and uniform.

Work in progress

I think this is looking pretty good.

Wondering about the sky colours is the only sticking point.

Notice anything I haven't done right?

Lillian Tranformed

Here is what Lillian ended up looking like after an afternoon of TLC. I think she actually looks pretty darn cool...

She just is not looking much like her inspiration, my all time favourite statue by Brian Cooley, formerly on display at the Tyrrell . This is a old promo shot I came across of the original "Lillian" statue from the 80's (which you can tell from the clothes :P)...

My first Mark 2 model never exactly matched the original sculpture either, to be fair. Though I did try my best with my much more limited skills in those days.

However my new Mark 5 is a total departure from the sculpture. My more attuned sense of accuracy has led Lillian 2.0 to look more like Mr. Cooley's modern era Albertosaurs he built to replace Lillian for the "new" (to me anyways... as I've been away a while) Cretaceous Alberta entrance to the Tyrrell.

My excuse, I guess could be that my Lillian went on a diet after leaving the Tyrrell and lost all her excess bulk. Especially from around her throat region.

However this raises an interesting problem for me. Do I want my CG Lillian to look like the original sculpture or do I want my own take on the "character"?

I originally turned Lillian into a character wanting to keep something of the statue "alive", as the Tyrrell was in the process of getting rid of it when I left the museum. That statue has always been the face of the Tyrrell to me. We go back a long way. I visited Lillian every year between her unveiling in 1985 all the way up to her departure in 2006... (In good news Lillian was donated to the local high school and thus saved from the dump as I'd feared back in 2006.) My motivation was not to copy Mr. Cooley's work, but rather pay tribute to it.

So what do you think?

Is mine still Lillian enough?

Am I copying Mr. Cooley's art too much?

Can mine survive being the same or different from the original statue?

As a funny wrap up, in case you missed it, here is the behind the scenes origin of how Lillian became Traumador's love interest... It's funny how these things happen. Who knew this one tiny gag would have me worrying so much years later?!?

The Downside of Improvement!

So having pretty much mastered my technique for colouring models as Mark 5s, there is just one problem. If I put any of my older Mark 2 style models with a new Mark 5 they look ridiculously cartoonish.

Having mastered and streamlined how I create Mark 5 shaders, it has not been too big a problem to revamp these old shaders. It just takes time!

Of all my old Mark 2 models, I haven't been prouder of any of them than Lillian. She is also one of my oldest models! I built here wayyyyyyy back in early 2008, which is like a whole different epoch in my 3Ding techniques!

Up until recently she has stood up incredibly well. However with the addition of the Mark 5 shaders her whole look changed, and not for the best! Despite not changing the baseline model, Lillian's head went from one of my most impressive to nearly farcical!

It appears that the black outlines of the Mark 2 shaders were drawing emphasis to the parts of her head I sculpted well. While in the Mark 5 doesn't emphasis anywhere. Leaving the many inaccuracies of my old model (from way before I started to really use references!) plain for all to see...

Now that I have entered the era of references it was time to get comparing. In this case to my childhood favourite picture of Albertosaurus by Gregory Paul (its depressing to think this "cutting edge" picture by Mr. Paul is over 20 years old!).

Superficially my old Lillian's skull matches, but if you pay attention to the details they are quite off.

Meaning it was time to finally retool Lillian... Which I suspect will be an ongoing trend this year!

So considering I reworked her skull with just eyeball referencing of this Paul drawing and some skeletal pictures I have from the Tyrrell, she has turned out incredibly well.

Though Lillian is not an exact match for the Paul drawing on all fronts, she is pretty close. I'm going to have to figure out how to get that slender snout look in 3D.

Though to be honest I want to know exactly which skull Paul was referencing for this drawing? All my photos of Albertosaur skulls (5 of them in total) show them to have have taller snouts than this one here. Don't get me wrong I like the slender look, but I'm not sure it is accurate...